Where are we going with this?
by Exciton
Summary: Mira and Nate's pokémon journey involves smuggling, assassins, historical figures, a grumpy old man, awkward questions, war, and the Legendaries. Massively AU. Mostly OCs.Based on games, not anime or manga.
1. It was a warm and sunny morning

Chapter 1: Reprisals and Beginnings

Mira enjoyed the brief moment of peace and quiet. There was no one else out here on the bow of the ferry. She played with the peeling paint on the metal railing through fingerless gloves. A bit of sunlight peaked through the cloud layer, warming her bare shoulders. Beneath her Ren growled playfully. Then the Eevee yipped several times. Mira felt the pokémon dash past her legs. She glanced back in mild amusement. Ren was chasing Vinegar around a pair of deck chairs. Faster and faster the two adorable pokémon went, starting to form into a pair of blurs. Mira leaned back from the railing and started to worry. The little game was turning into a playful battle of Quick Attacks, and pretty soon an innocent bystanding deck chair would get hurt. Mira did not want to pay for that.

"Hey!" she called out. Instantly Vinegar stopped, the well-trained Vulpix cocking her tufted towards her master. Ren hid behind a thick chair leg, as usual playing hard to get.

Mira called again, "Ren! Get back over here." The Eevee peeked out at her, its tiny face seeming almost mischievous as it refused. Mira sighed. She wasn't in the mood to administer discipline. She took a couple steps towards the disobedient little runt.

The door to the interior deck of the ferry abruptly opened. Nate strolled through, lips pursed in thought. Ren yipped happily and dashed off towards his favorite human. Nate glanced down. He offered a hand. Ren jumped up onto his hand before scampering up his arm to perch on the human's shoulder. Ren turned to look at his master, then yipped again. "Vee!"

Mira huffed. "I don't know why he likes you more than me. I pet him, I feed him, I train him, I give him a warm place to sleep at night…"

Nate laughed. It was the first time Mira had heard him laugh since they'd left Cianwood the day before. She was surprised at how much relief that gave her. If Nate could relax, even for a moment, then maybe things would work themselves out. She noticed his lack of companions and commented on it.

Nate shrugged, careful not to upset the pokémon perched on his shoulder. "Well, obviously I'm not going to let the new guy out, even if we are in international waters. Maxwell disappeared some time ago through a door marked "Engine Room". He's probably sucking current from the ship's main generator. I'm not worried about him. Maxwell's nothing if not self-reliant."

Mira looked at him oddly. "Is that legal? You know, stealing electricity?"

"No one's commented on it before."

"Oh, speaking of Maxwell, how's the invisibility project coming?"

Nate looked up and to the left, silent for a few moments. Finally he replied, "Nothing works so far. I think Maxwell knows the main idea. He knows what electromagnetic waves are. I think he sees them in a more intuitive way than I can even imagine. Still, it's hard to communicate any specifics. It's like trying to do physics without math. Anyways, I'm putting it on the back-burner while we take care of the real problem at hand."

"Have you tried asking someone from Goldenrod University?" Mira persisted.

Nate leaned in close to Mira and lowered his voice. "No. I think they would see it as dangerously close to forbidden research. And they'd be right. It's more of a Psychic-type trick then an Electric-type move. I'm going to keep this a secret unless I can find someone I trust. Besides you and Buck, obviously."

"Speaking of Buck, where the hell is he? He disappeared the moment we got our stuff stowed in the cabin."

Nate made a face. "Gambling. With a couple of sailors covered in tattoos."

Mira nodded. "Not your scene, I know."

"It's not your scene either."

Mira smiled coyly. "I dunno, some of those guys have some real stories to tell. And, oh, the _muscles _on that guy we saw working the ramp earlier-"

Nate coughed. "Spare me. Anyways, have you heard from your parents yet?"

Mira bit her lip. In Nate's considered opinion, this made her even more adorable than usual. At length she replied, "Yeah. It went surprisingly well, all things considered. They've been pushing me to train more seriously for a long time now. And they felt a lot calmer that Buck went along with us. Plus…nah, it's too embarrassing, I can't tell you that." She blushed at something and quickly asked "What about you?"

Nate winced. "It was bad. Really bad. Mom never wanted me to get involved in battling, and even though I told her that we weren't traveling for the sake of training, she still started yelling. I think she called me a "sentimental moron" and "hormone-crazed imbecile" because she was too furious to think of anything more clever. She told me that anyone with a hint of common sense would have dumped off the little guy into someone else's lap."

Mira nodded in agreement. "That would be sensible, but heartless. I guess my parents thought that I might get some clemency because I'm only helping , not doing it myself. I dunno. I think if they find us with your new pokémon they'll just dump us into the Ocean. Or a dumpster. Or a forest. Or wherever is most convenient to hide our bodies."

Nate frowned. "Don't be morbid. We are actually taking stupidly high risks in this whole thing. But with Buck along, we have a good chance of making it. Besides, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life on that backwater island. I think that's part of what made my Mom so angry. She knows that it's time for me to leave. To make my own way. To grow up."

Mira smiled. "Us. It's time for us to grow up together."

"Yeah, right. Together. So um, do you want to find something to drink? I'm starting to wish we'd brought some bottled water with us. The stuff coming out of the taps tastes like mud." They headed inside, still almost a full day out from Cinnabar.

Five minutes later a though struck Nate. _Wait, was she just flirting with me? No, couldn't be. Wishful thinking._

* * *

><p>"Arceus' dirty left paw, it's hot out today." Mandy's high-pitched voice broke Alessandro out of his focus on the village arranged below them. Alessandro glanced over at his complaining partner, before returning his gaze to the binoculars. Mandy had sprawled next to him, heedless of the grass stains seeping into her leather jacket. She gently stroked Midnight, who lay curled up against her trainer's stomach. The tiny Umbreon purred almost inaudibly at the attention.<p>

Mandy continued, "Why are we attacking this shitpile of a village anyways?"

Alessandro sighed. "Did you even bother to read our orders?"After waiting for a few seconds he realized that his partner would not bother responding, and added, "Our quarry passed through here a few days ago, openly displaying their Psychic-types. Instead of kicking them out and calling the police like good, law-abiding citizens, they chose to harbor known criminals. And then they had the audacity to deny it when our representative arrived. We can't let this sort of betrayal go unpunished."

A calm voice replied to Alessandro inside his own mind. "_Master, I sense that you are trying to convince me as much as your human partner. I must admit that this plan does not abide within my honor. And yet, I cannot dispute the clarity of your orders."_

Alessandro replied in kind, "_And further, you know the truth of it. Duty trumps conscience, as it always must."_

Lucario growled audibly at that, clearly not agreeing. Before the argument could go any further, Mandy rolled off her back and to her feet, displacing Midnight with a small yip of confusion. She returned the pokémon before glancing down.

"Hey, we ready to get going on this, or what? I'd like to make it back to the lake before nightfall." Mandy said. She added action to words by releasing Gastly and Absol, using the bulk of the hill to shield the flash of white light from view. The ghost quickly vanished while drifting in the direction of the town. Absol waited patiently, the well-trained harbinger of doom staring serenely down at the town.

Alessandro rose into a crouch, still peering through binoculars at the target. He began assembling the thoughts that had filled his mind while he studied their goal. Out loud, he commented "Actually a large number of pokémon given the size of the town. Fair number of fliers in addition to the grass and ground types. No evidence of dragons or psychics, though. I'm going to send Grimer in and start laying down some kerosene around those houses on the left side. Tangela will approach from the other side in full view. If they have any fire-types, they're well hidden, so that should be alright. Gastly will cause confusion in their ranks as they pull themselves together to face Tangela. You and I can start attacking from the air at the same time. Meanwhile Lucario will attack from the south, and maybe Absol from the north, by the road back towards New Bark Town? Yeah, that could work. Once we've got them bunched up and starting to panic, send in everyone else to support Tangela. They should break and start running to the Western end, at which time Magmar ignites the kerosene and burns the surviving ones alive. Mop-up after that should be trivial. Did I miss anything?"

While Alessandro had been talking, Mandy's expression had hardened. She still looked relaxed, only now an edge of pure steel lurked beneath the surface.

"What about reinforcements from Professor Elm's lab? It's only a few miles to the west."

Alessandro shrugged. "He's off in Hoenn for some big conference, so that shouldn't be a problem. His assistants won't be able to command the really dangerous ones in the lab, and we can fight off regular trainers. It'll be good to get the exercise, anyways."

* * *

><p>John scratched his beard awkwardly. Aliana and her husband had been trying to drag him into their argument for twenty minutes without much success. He was running out of ideas to stay out of their conflict when a blessed distraction appeared.<p>

Into the heavy silence he commented, "Hey, do you guys smell that? It's like someone tipped over a fuel barrel nearby. We should probably go check it out."

Aliana nodded, and followed John in the rough direction the odor was coming from. When you lived in a wooden house on the edge of civilization, it paid to be cautious about fire hazards. The three of them turned the corner and found a huge puddle of liquid behind the Shepherdson's house. The familiar scent of heating oil washed over them, along with a hint of something less familiar. John swayed a little from the rush of fumes, and backed up a bit. Glancing at his two companions, he asked the obvious question.

"The hell?"

Aliana's husband responded "I didn't see a barrel or nothin. I'm thinking maybe—"

A distant boom echoed through the air and the earth trembled slightly. John whirled, just in time to see a second Fire Blast slam into the co-op. With a heavy crunching noise and the scream of twisting metal the roof collapsed entirely. Tremors rocked through the ground more rapidly now, but it was clear that this was no earthquake.

Aliana gasped in outrage. "Something just killed the Pattersons! They're burning this town to the ground. We've got to do something about it. Thor, I need you now more than ever."

A burst of white light in front of them momentarily obscured the aging Machamp as it materialized. The nine-foot tall Fighter took a knee to face its trainer. Patches of grey mottled the pokémon's naturally blue skin tone, and its head crests had been badly chipped. Still, a fire raged in its eyes as intense as the blaze consuming the bodies of the villagers unlucky enough to live on the far side of town.

Aliana stroked the creature's cheek with her hand, whispering "I know that you are tired. I know that you left your youth behind you. But once a Fighter is always a Fighter. It's time for battle, Thor."

Grunting somberly, the Machamp rose back to its feet and took off at a trot towards the unseen enemy. Aliana glanced archly at her husband, hoping against hope that he might have taken a pokémon with him on their walk. One look at his frustrated expression dashed that dream, and she turned to look at John, who had fortunately been joined by a Graveler and a less common pokémon.

"Since when have you had a Wartortle? Where did you get it?" Aliana shouted.

John just shrugged. "Hardly matters. I'm going to send Mulch here," he patted the Graveler's bumpy exterior "and Adena towards the school. To protect it." He didn't have to add 'if it's still standing'. They all knew that the increasingly loud sounds of burning, breaking, and screaming coming from the rest of the village didn't bode well. In fact, John was rather amazed that his neighbors hadn't sprinted after their children yet.

Aliana sighed. "Thank Arceus the children are with their uncle in Saffron. I wouldn't be able to face death like knowing they were here with us."

John glared at her. "That's it? You've already given up? You're not even going to go down fighting alongside your Machamp?"

Aliana put her arm around her husband's broad shoulders and nodded. "Thor's too old to fight against well-trained pokémon. He's just going to buy some time." She sighed. "John, I should have died in the war. It was a logistical accident that kept me out of the Seafoam Islands when the bomb went off. Me and Henry, we've had a good life here, raised a couple wonderful children. It's wrong to fight fate."

John shook his head in amazement. "Fine. Die here. I'm going to make a stand. For the children who didn't get to visit their uncle."

He jogged off towards the southern end of town, noting with growing concern that the pools of spilled kerosene were all over the place. There was no way that was an accident. He shuddered briefly at the thought of a well-placed Flamethrower attack igniting the whole block in one hit. A few minutes later he reached Selk street, only one block from the school, although a line of trees blocked the building proper from view. He couldn't smell the smoke as well from here, even with the wind blowing softly to the west. That was definitely a good sign.

His slight sense of relief crumbled when he saw the scene playing out on the field in front of the village school. An alert Lucario patrolled in front of a huddled mass of children. The handful of teachers and assistants were nowhere to be found. As he crossed the street, the Lucario stopped its patrol and started swiftly walking towards him. For some reason John felt compelled to reason with the pokémon, and stayed Adena, pushing down on her thick skull to keep her from attacking. Mulch stood next to him on its absurdly short legs, the hulking Graveller not keen to take on a Fighting-type.

The Lucario held out one paw in what appeared almost like an invitation to shake. Playing along with the utterly bizarre and terrifying dream that today had become, John reached out to grasp the powerful creature's right paw. A jolt of something shot through him as soon as he made contact. He felt dizzy, the kind of feeling that comes right after chugging a beer or standing up too quickly. A voice sounded in his head, in calm, measured, and quite alien tones.

"_Human. You are a resident of this town. Do you know why we are here? Do you know why you are being punished?"_

John shook his head violently, and added inside his head, "_Do I know why my town is being burned to the ground, with all of my friends and neighbors inside of it? No. No, I don't. And I'm getting pretty Arceus-damned curious about why all of the children were rounded up in a field."_

The Lucario replied, "_Not long ago you gave succor to a trio of adventurers. Or criminals, I should rather say, as they walked around with a Psychic-type. Instead of reporting them, your people hid them from the local Team representative and denied the matter when questioned. You may find our response overwhelmingly harsh, but we cannot afford to sacrifice our hard-earned peace to a resurgence of the Psychics. Examples must be made, and you were simply unlucky enough to play that role."_

John growled, growing uncomfortably aware that he was not the most intelligent or powerful individual in sight. He noticed that the Lucario had failed to mention why he was here guarding the children. He asked, "_I can't deal with that now. Ok. Look. More immediate. What are you doing with these children. Are you going to kill them too, to make an example?"_

Lucario glanced down at the ground, as if embarrassed. John had too remind himself that this was a pokémon he was speaking with, not an actual person. It was growing tricky to remember. The creature spoke again in his mind, its cultured voice bringing to mind nothing so much as a chivalric knight. "_I can see you think of me as a guard. And indeed I am. I am the wall that shelters these children from the waves of the storm, from the flames of the forest fire. The other pokémon of my masters give in to their brutish natures when under stress. In truth, there is no other pokémon in this town capable an willing to stand between the helpless and the wrathful."_

John couldn't believe what was happening. He came here to fight off bandits or marauding wild pokémon, not engage in a philosophical discussion with a Lucario. A Lucario, of all species! Nearly extinct, the dual fighting-psychic types were only found working for the Team or in isolated regions still outside of the Team's control. And what was worse, John was starting to think about joining up with the thing. His desperate fumbling for the one question that would unhinge the honor-bound pokémon in front of him drove him to ask what was nearly the right question.

"_If you're willing to fight to protect the helpless, why are you working with the Team?"_

Lucario's features twisted into an imitation of a wry look. John didn't like that expression. Had he been more educated he might have thought about the Uncanny Valley. Instead, he listened to the Lucario's response.

"_I will hazard a guess that you have never personally experienced capture with a pokeball. The process deeply changes you, in ways that have always been difficult for humans to empathize with. My fealty will always rest with my master. I would follow him to the gates of hell itself, even if he intended to conquer the Dark Citadel and claim it as his own. To my good fortune my master is bound by the same code of conduct that compels me. Yet he has pledged to a force that often does great evil in the service of a higher good. It is a tradeoff civilians like you find difficult to accept. I shall not protest as to his perfection, yet I hope that you will admire his virtues before you condemn him for what you see as his weaknesses. Alessandro must do what is wrong in the service of what is right. And we may consider ourselves blessed that we do not face the same dilemmas." _

The Lucario shrugged its shoulders, loosening up the muscles, before adding "_If you still desire to wrest control of these human children from me, then I shall wait as you prepare for battle. And I will not relate your presence here, Sir John, if you choose to flee to the south before the less honorable of my master's pokémon arrive. They will think nothing of crushing your body and eating the corpse."_

John glared. "_I'm not leaving until these kids are safe. You smell that smoke? I know you do, being part dog. It's getting stronger. Closer. What are you gonna do about it?"_

The Lucario continued staring at him, before finally deciding to reveal its plan to the simple-minded yet oddly respect-worthy man in front of him. Perhaps he could serve as the witness to the Team's destruction of this village. Lucario would prefer not to have to kill him.


	2. Cinnabar's lonely welcome

A pale crescent of moonlight provided just enough illumination for Mira to put one foot in front of another. Vinegar chirped happily as she trotted alongside her master. The perky firefox enjoyed being back on land again. She showed it by racing ahead before coming back and hiccuping little gouts of fire from her snout. Normally that made Mira smile. Tonight the trainer was too tired to care much as she trudged up the dirt road alongside Buck and Nate. She idly wondered why she hadn't used her female status to secure a place on Hazel's saddle. It was her damned conscience, probably.

Nate broke the sullen silence. "Think we're getting close. Road leveled out. Should be half mile or so further. Hard to miss, they said."

Silently Mira grumbled at the mention of the sailors who'd seen them off the ferry. The Cinnabar Island ferry terminal was hardly worth the name. A monument to filth. An altar upon which pilgrims laid their offerings of food wrappers, pokémon waste, and rotting palm fronds. She'd felt lucky not to fall through the rickety pier into the dark water below. Even worse, what kind of "ferry terminal" had no working transportation links? It was all very uncivilized. Gloomily Mira realized that the whole trip was probably going to be like this. Belatedly she remembered the warning she'd given to her penpal in Ecruteak when the other girl had wanted to come camping on Cianwood Island. _'Roughing it' sounds a lot more fun when you aren't actually doing it yet. And people always look back with these rose glasses. Shit, people talk about giving birth as if it wasn't the most painful and disgusting thing they've ever done. If you want to come see something, like the waterfall I told you about last time, say so. Don't make it sound like a picnic.  
><em>

At least the mosquitoes were gone. And there weren't any screaming kids running around. No, there was something to be said for visiting this island in the off-season, even if it meant a certain lack of amenities. Buck didn't expect to see more than locals and the usual travelers—merchants, mercenaries, and trainers. People who were dangerous without being nosy. That was alright with the Cianwooders. They weren't looking for company on the path to Saffron.

Finally the road passed out from the midst of straggly vegetation into what passed for civilization. Houses were built on stilts around here. Mira couldn't tell for sure in the poor lighting but they seemed to be made of sticks or grass or something similarly primitive. She didn't care enough to comment about it, although Nate apparently did.

"What's with the houses around here? They look kind of…uh.." He grasped for a polite way to describe the apparently backwards nature of the village.

Buck grunted. "Tourism. Island lives and dies by it. Stupid mainlanders think that Cinnabars are friendly savages living in grass huts. So they build 'em along the road from the ferry terminal to Cinnabar City. Nobody really lives here. Least it was that way a decade ago. Times have been hard. Could be they had to start living like that." He added, "Doesn't really matter. We're heading for Cinnabar City tomorrow morning. It's a real city. More like Olivine than anywhere else. You'll hate it."

Mira was really not paying much attention to Buck. She'd caught sight of the familiar slate-red roof at the end of the next block. She returned Vinegar, not needing the overactive Vulpix out as a security blanket any longer. Visions of a hot shower and a cool, soft bed filled her head.

Of course her hopes were quickly dashed. There was no one working that night except an emergency nurse. She was polite, if standoffish. And she didn't have the keys to any of the rooms. Naturally. The nurse didn't mind if they slept on the surprisingly comfortable couches in the reception area. She even brought out a bag of pokémeal for any of their pokémon that might want some. Buck politely declined and she left them to go back to whatever mysterious activities nurses performed in the back room. Mira's crushed hopes didn't trouble her for long. The couch seemed capable of swallowing her petite frame whole. She quickly fell into a deep sleep, drowning in the soft and badly-stained cushions. You had to enjoy the comforts live gave you while they lasted, she drowsily thought just before it all turned black.

* * *

><p>A rough hand on her forehead shook Mira awake. She moaned in irritation, before trying to sit up. She couldn't escape the couch on her first attempt. So she tried again, getting most of the way before collapsing back into it. Then she tried rolling off to the side and fell onto the floor, one ankle still caught in the corner of a cushion. Through bleary eyes and a dry throat, she struggled to look up at Buck.<p>

He didn't bother to hide his small grin. "Come on, sleeping beauty. Bus broke down so we've got a nice walk ahead of us. Sun is out and it smells like a dream out there. Get your little butt moving so we can get moving."

Mira slowly assembled herself into what could be called a sitting position. "Where's Nate?" she asked.

"I went looking for coffee." Nate answered the question she'd posed to Buck. She turned around to see him standing there, bare-handed.

"And?" she prompted.

"Obviously I didn't find it. You about ready to go?" Nate looked like he'd rather be outside.

Wordlessly Mira scooted over to her pack and grabbed the straps before standing up and putting it on. She started walking towards the exit, knowing that her annoyingly chipper traveling companions would be following. On the way out she stopped to douse her face in tepid water from the washroom. A quick swallow of the clear, salty liquid helped her feel a bit more alive. Not enough to enjoy being awake, though.

The warm morning sun, filtered through a thousand verdant leaves and the gaps between the peaks of the Twin Peaks, soaked into Mira's exposed skin. Strands of inky black hair clung to her forehead in the suffocating humidity. A refreshing breeze from the ocean below brought some relief. The familiar salty smell of the ocean also helped. The ocean felt a little different here than in Cianwood. More organic and less rocky, if that made any sense. She dumped the brief perception aside, not bothered enough by the difference to think about it further. What did bother her was the _stench._

Mira didn't know how she could have missed it last night. It was like being in a landfill. No, it was like swimming through a mound of garbage while someone burned a pile of sulfur nearby. She was too disgusted to breathe through her mouth and be rid of the smell. Arceus knows what sort of diseases she'd catch from the unholy aroma suffusing the area.

She glared at Buck. "You said it smelled like a dream. What the hell, old man?"

"I didn't say whether it was a good dream, now did I?" Buck glanced at Nate. "Is she always like this in the mornings?"

Nate stared straight ahead. "Even when she was a little girl. Why do you think I asked you to wake her up instead of doing it myself?"

Buck got a thoughtful look on his face. "Suppose it's not really my business to ask why you know what she's like when she wakes up, but I haven't been woken by the sounds of you too humping yet, so I figure—"

Nate colored rapidly and Mira laughed, surprising all three of them. "Buck you know I don't stay over with boys, I just take them for a ride and get them home by curfew. Now Nate on the other hand, he's all about cuddling..."

Buck laughed right back at her, a raucous sound that the teenagers didn't hear from him very often. Nate quickly changed the subject before they decided to gang up on him. "Seriously, though, what is with that stench? It wasn't like that last night and I'm not real excited about smelling it all day."

Buck shrugged. "Dunno. Folks around here are awfully lazy about hunting down the Poison-types. It doesn't smell like the usual suspects. Could be some sort of Koffing emission. They get very big and very dangerous around here without natural predators. It's another reasons to get moving, though. We should make it to Cinnabar City by nightfall if you two don't walk slower than I do."

The smell never really went away until the made it within the city limits of Cinnabar City. By the time the sun was getting low on the horizon they'd dropped their packs off at the pokémon center (this one was actually open for business) and started looking for dinner. They settled on a street vendor selling broiled Magikarp. Covered in dried sweat, exhausted, and smelling like roadkill-flavored perfume, Mira sprawled out on the sandy beach next to Nate. She didn't bother asking why they hadn't been able to take a ferry into the docks here at Cinnabar City. Nor did she ask why he'd told them not to shower before going back out for dinner. She didn't care. It felt too nice to just lie here on the sand and drink in the fading light of the setting sun.

Until a shadow crossed over them. Buck offered them a hand up. "C'mon. It's time to learn how to hire a "fishing boat" for a trip to "Pallet Bay"."

Nate hauled himself up on his elbows. "But I don't have my passport. Or even my Trainer ID. You told me to leave it back at the center."

Buck looked more awake then he'd been all day. "Where we're going, you won't need ID. Just follow along and keep your mouths shut. We'll be on our way soon enough."

"Where are we going after Cinnabar? You told us we'd find out when the time was right. Can that time be now?"

Buck made good on his promise, replying impatiently. "Seafoam."

"Seafoam? What's in Seafoam that's worth seeing?" Mira asked.

Nate added, "I read that there aren't any pokémon centers in Seafoam. Something about territorial issues?"

Buck nodded. "What they mean is nobody owns the Seafoam Islands. Both Cinnabar and Fuschia wish they do. Most people there are happy enough to avoid being under any kind of law and order. What that means is we're not likely to be tracked. Leave not traces, that sort of thing. That enough for you?"

Nate shrugged, before adding "Actually I'm curious about how-"

Buck cut him off. "It can wait. There's too many Team employees in this city. The longer we stay here, the less safe we are. Let's go."

They hit the pokémon center on the way back to grab their packs. Buck stopped Mira and Nate from checking out, though. Mira gave him an odd look. She was still following orders, though, and didn't voice the question. They followed him back down to the ragged side of town into a maze of stalls and houseboats and buildings that were certainly not up to code. It was all very new and exciting and scary to a sheltered Cianwooder girl like Mira. If she hadn't been tired and sore she might have felt those emotions as more than twinges. She followed Nate and Buck onto a large speedboat along with two strangers, before casting off and drifting towards the end of the bay.

She was jolted from her stupor by an unavoidable observation. They weren't using any running lights. Even with the faint glow from the scarred Pikachu crouched on the bow it was far too dark out. Remembering Buck's rule, she bended it by whispering her question into his ear. His reply came calmly and surely.  
>"Cinnabar police get suspicious when anyone's on the water after dark. All of us would love to avoid any kind of involvement like that. Relax, these men know exactly what they're doing. We should reach Seafoam before sunrise." He leaned in closer as the whine of the engines revved higher. Leaving the cape behind them they accelerated sharply. Waves slammed against the sturdy hull, sending bone-jolting impacts straight up Mira's spine at irregular intervals. Buck continued, "You should try to get some sleep if you can."<p>

Mira almost laughed at the absurdity of it. Sleep? On a boat hurtling through the dark piloted by criminals—probably smugglers—without a single water pokémon between the three of them?

Mira liked taking risks. But this was just ridiculous. The sooner they debarked in Seafoam, the better.

* * *

><p>Alessandro shooed the tech out and took the only seat. Mandy slouched against the prefab metal wall. Her fingers played with a small black shard that had split off Charizard's claws. She turned it over again and again in her hand, her callused thumb rubbing against the cool fragment. Alessandro fiddled with a trio of dials for a few minutes. His gaze tracked a squiggly line on one of the readouts in the dimly-lit radio room.<p>

"How long are you going to play with that?" she asked.

"I've almost got a clear channel. I had to recalibrate it manually. Some idiot working here thought that 27 MHz was a good band to transmit on."

"It isn't?"

"It's a fine way to transmit if you're sending a television signal. Which we're not. I wouldn't expect anything that sophisticated from this bunch of hicks."

"Maybe they're used to only receiving orders and don't need to transmit very often?" Mandy offered, not caring in the slightest.

"It's possible..." he drifted off for a moment before adding triumphantly "Got it. That should work well enough for now" He hit a few more toggles and the microphone crackled audibly. Slowly and clearly he spoke into it, "Agents Alessandro and Mandy requesting to speak with Vice-Chair of Nonpublic Operations."

"Copy, Agents. Transmit Identification Codes now." The harried female dispatcher replied almost instantly to their request.

"Tango Charlie Seven Three Nine Scyther." Alessandro spoke for both of them. Mandy envied his ability to memorize the six character identifier. That was beyond her.

The voice intoned "Acknowledged. Stand by, verification...completed. Stand by."

A long pause was marked only by occasional hisses from static on the radio channel. Finally a a familiar voice spoke up.

"Report."

"Sir, no contact has been made with the quarry since they were reported outside of Pallet town yesterday. We suspect the tip of being a plant by Saffron agents. We are currently in Viridian at the local Team center. None of the local informants were aware of a pair of trainers matching the quarry's description. It is possible that they took a different path through the mountains than expected."

"How could you have missed them, Alessandro? Viridian lies directly on every land route connecting Johto and Kanto. They must pass through there. And if you're certain they haven't overtaken you yet, it seems obvious what you need to do now."

"Stay here and search every traveler?" Mandy tried.

"Right in one. Use the local members—they're too dumb to act on their own but smart enough not to ask unnecessary questions. I can't spare you much else in the way of resources. Given the current situation in Saffron, it's more important than ever that you don't let them slip past. If they make it through Viridian we'll lose them in the forest. Feel free to kill the humans, just leave the Ralts alive long enough to talk."

Mandy ignored the restatement of their standing orders, tuning out while Alessandro went into detail about the actions of the past few days. She was jolted back into alertness when Alessandro's glare and the silence warned her she'd been asked a question.

"Sorry, what?" she asked.

"Agent Mandy, your senior status doesn't excuse you from paying attention to your boss. Now I hear from your partner that the attack on the town didn't bother you. Killing poorly-trained pokémon and their masters suits you better than Alessandro, apparently."

She shrugged, then realized that a verbal response was necessary. "Sir, I follow orders, whether they are 'go over there' or 'kill this woman' or 'dance around in a circle while I throw peanuts at you'. If those villagers needed killing, then that's all that needs to be said."

"We've never asked anything of the kind before."

"If you say so. I think killing is pretty much just killing, whether or not the other guy signed up for it. Nobody's really willing to die. That's simply not my problem."

A sigh was the Executive's first response. "Regardless of your philosophy about death, enjoy your bonus. I'll have it in your accounts by Tuesday. Watch all of the roads and don't let that Ralts through. Anything else?"

At their silence the channel closed.

Alessandro muttered, "Do you really think so little of human life?"

She shrugged. "Everything dies someday. How many people do anything truly valuable with their lives? Would the universe be measurably worse off if we died tonight? Hell, would anyone even care if we did? Same logic applies to the dirt farmers we took care of. Nothing has really changed. Life goes on in Goldenrod. When you take a wider perspective, nothing matters quite so much as we pretend it does."

Alessandro blinked. "I was not expecting a philosophical defense of your position. We all thought you were just callous and psychopathic." Then he muttered "And now I remember why we don't talk about things."

Overhearing, Mandy laughed. Her partner in crime could be so sensitive sometimes.

"Let's go set up the guard detail with the grunts and then find dinner." she said, getting back to business.

"I'm always amazed by what our valiant comrades in the kitchens manage to pass off as food." Alessandro grinned weakly.

"That's the spirit. Just stay optimistic and you'll be fine."

The irony of Mandy's advice was not lost on Alessandro.


	3. Dark and stormy night

Nate's knee slammed against the rock and he ground his teeth together at the sudden sharp pain. He tried to cling tighter to prevent it from happening again. His fingers scrabbled over the wave-worn boulder, searching for a deeper crevice. His jeans and jacket stuck to his skin, the soaked garments not holding in much warmth. Cold water surged again, threatening to pull himself and Mira from the rock they clung to. Sheer dogged effort had kept them from slipping off so far. Mira hadn't released Vinegar or Ren, knowing they'd be pretty useless in a battle for survival like this. A small part of Nate's mind that wasn't focused on survival shuddered at the sound of an unsettling screech from somewhere unseen along the coastline.

Another wave crashed against the pair of Cianwooders, striking with more ferocity than before. Back home they would have called this a storm, although the wind was nothing to write home about. He'd once read in a book that Seafoam was notorious for its navigational hazards. More shipwrecks occurred in this region than the rest of the continent combined.

The waves grew ever stronger. It felt like the ocean was getting the heavy artillery out. Not for the first time did Nate wish desperately Mira or himself had a pokémon with Surf.

His wish grew into a desperate, soul-crushing need as a wall of water slammed into him from his blind side. Both teenagers were swept away from the rock that had given them a measure of shelter.

"Mira!" Nate shouted.

Nate didn't hear her voice call back. He couldn't have responded, anyways, with the mouthful of saltwater that had poured down his throat. He alternately retched and gasped for air as the ocean seethed all around him. Arms paddling furiously to stay above the surging wave, his stomach dropped as the next trough brought him tumbling down. Nate looked up wildly as the next crest appeared. It loomed like a skyscraper in front of him. It hit with crushing force. Nate sank under the blow. He couldn't see anything for several precious seconds. He kicked as hard as he could. In the dim pre-dawn light he could barely see which way was up. Luckily he got it right and broke the surface after almost a minute under, drawing a grateful breath. The last wave must have carried him into a calmer patch of the coast. He was brutally reminded that 'calmer' was a relative thing as the next wave engulfed him.

Nate couldn't see Mira anywhere. In the gaps between waves his frantic searching didn't find the rock they'd been clinging to, either. He couldn't make out anything more than the direction of dry land. He swam hard towards the shoreline. He couldn't spare the time to worry about how to climb the small rocky cliff making up the water's edge. Progress was slow against the shipwrecking currents. Continued roaring off in the distance didn't help his rattled nerves any.

Nate felt the very real possibility that he might die this early in his journey. Instead of making him terrified or bitter, it just made him furious. What the hell kind of trainer died before catching a single wild pokémon?

Thus driven by fear of being embarrassed in the afterlife, Nate put everything he had left into his spastic swimming. Cianwood's second-fastest swimmer gradually approached the shore. The cliffs loomed taller and taller and the small portion of his brain still capable of rational thought began to worry about how he was going to keep from being smashed right into the sheer rock ahead of him.

A mysterious note echoed through the air, followed by a full chord. Soon an eerie song filled the air. Nate brushed off the sounds as another messed up part of this experience. He was close to being in shock. Even in October the water around the Seafoam islands was cold enough to be dangerous. He didn't even know if Mira or Buck were alive. So it was almost inevitable that he couldn't react fast enough as a surging wave carried him forward on the crest. Blessed unconsciousness claimed Nate as the young trainer slammed into the unyielding rock. His body fell limp in the wave trough. Water spilled into his lungs again.

Being unconscious, Nate didn't see or hear his savior. Buck, collapsed on top of a nearby cliff face, watched in amazement as Articuno descended from the low-lying cloud bank in a burst of unsettling birdsong. The Legendary flapped its wings. A precisely targeted vortex hit the cliff near the water line. Nate's limp body whirled into the air, coming to rest right in front of the bird. Articuno took the young man gently in her beak. A flash of pale blue light blinded Buck for a moment. When he looked back, the Legendary bird had vanished along with young Nate.

Lorelei awoke with a start. Tyche was gently nudging her master. The Ice Queen had only been lightly dozing, so she responded with a quick rub on the Lapras' face to let her know everything was okay. Tyche rumbled appreciatively. Uncharacteristically, though, the pokémon nudged her again, demanding attention. Lorelei took a moment to stretch before standing. The soreness in her muscles from sleeping on insulated ice reminded her that middle age had arrived with a vengeance. She shrugged on her satchel and belt, adjusting it as the leather caught against the padding on her jacket. She glanced around the cavern to see if Duke had returned. Not a trace. Lorelei sighed. She hated when the Dewgong left for weeks at a time like this. It was dangerous for any of his species in the Seafoam Islands with all of the smugglers about. Last she'd heard, the price of Dewgong horns had exceeded their weight in platinum on the Celadon exchange. That had been over three years ago. Still, Duke was too headstrong to let the dangers stop him from his wanderings.

An unexpected sight completely drove these melancholy musings from her mind. A bedraggled stranger lay across Tyche's back. In her general state of grogginess she hadn't noticed the unannounced guest. Tyche mewed, the Lapras suggesting something along the lines of "_well don't just stand there gawking like a tourist, get this kid some help."_

Lorelei waited as Tyche pushed off of the ice shelf and coasted along for a few seconds. Heaving her bulk up above the waterline, she rolled slowly onto her side. The boy slid off of her back and gently onto the water's edge where a subducting fold of ice had made a kind of loading ramp. Lorelei grabbed the boy's arms and Tyche pushed at his torso, and together they moved him up onto the flat patch where the trainer had just been sleeping. With the speed and skillfulness born of hard experience, Lorelei took the stranger's pulse and temperature before checking for major injuries. It took her some effort to peel back the wet, chilled clothing stuck to his skin. She noted the swelling on his left forearm and the unpleasantly low core temperature with some concern. Still, she couldn't find any signs of critical injuries. That made her job a lot easier. After grabbing a spare blanket she began working on the stranger's arm. Most conveniently, the teenager did not wake until she'd finished the sling.

His first word upon waking was both predictable and forgivable. "Ow." Nate said.

Lorelei nodded. "Indeed."

She put a hand on his right shoulder to keep him from trying to sit up. His face contorted from the pain before he forced it down. Lorelei waited patiently, sitting next to him. Not far away Tyche watched patiently, her huge brown eyes full of concern.

"What…what is this place?" Nate asked slowly. His eyes flicked around the distant cavern roof.

"A cavern within the southernmost Seafoam Island. I daresay that it has never been named by humans. It was not as seriously affected by the explosion as the others. In the short time that you spend here you will find it safe, if not necessarily inviting to an outlander like yourself. You might think of it as a hospital. It has served me well in my years of penance. Perhaps the Seafoam Islands hold a different meaning for everyone."

Nate brought a hand up to his head. "Ow. You're making my head hurt." He closed his eyes for a moment. Nate began a mental catalogue of hurt. Bruises seemed to be everywhere, although there was a particularly large one on his right thigh. It was uncomfortably close to a place he was grateful not to have bruised. His head throbbed, and his throat felt raw and dry. Then of course there was his left arm. Less said, about that, the better. He opened his eyes again and asked for water. Lorelei stood up, returning a few moments later with an oddly shaped canteen. The first gulp made him choke, spitting up cool, refreshing water all over his face. He tried to drink more carefully after that. Nate didn't bother feeling embarrassed in front of this surprisingly attractive woman. Pain and disorientation took up all of his attention.

The woman returned with a thick, waterproof blanket and draped it over Nate's body. Without saying a word she laid the canteen next to him and walked away. He slowly drifted off to sleep. Strange dreams—involving a Pidgeotto in a top hat and Mira wearing lots of leather—plagued him. Tossing and turning in his sleep, he almost rolled into the icy water before Tyche nudged him back onto the ice.

A familiar smell and the comforting sound of a pot cooking over an open fire woke him up some time later. The headache returned fiercer than ever. Nate lay there motionless, eyes still closed, as the desire to get up and eat warred with the need to not move and make the aches and pains worse. Finally his stomach won out and grumbled loudly. He opened his eyes, slightly embarrassed. The woman who'd saved him crouched next to him, holding a glass vial of hazel liquid. She gestured for him to tilt his head up and drink it. Nate shivered as the cold, slimy liquid made its way down his throat, tasting of jasmine and vomit.

He chased the strange brew with blessedly clear water and brushed a bit of sweat from his forehead with his uninjured forearm. The woman put one slim arm around Nate's back and the other grasped his right hand. Together they worked him up into a sitting position. Nate gasped as his back flared up in pain, joining the chorus of agony lead by his head and arm. The woman didn't react, except to walk over to the cooking pot. She stirred it several times, took an experimental taste, and returned to sit next to Nate.

"It will be ready to eat soon," She offered.

"Smells right. You know how to make Harikohlto stew right. It's not from here." He stopped for a moment as a muscle twinged in his left shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he finished, "You've spent time in Cianwood then. And you look familiar. Are you related to—"

She gently interrupted him. "I have not always lived in the Seafoam Islands. It has been several years since I visited western Johto, however. You may rest assured that I have no ancestral ties to Cianwood. I will now assist you in eating a meal. We must finish before the potion comes into effect and releases you back into unconsciousness."

The stew was delicious. In his addled state Nate didn't think to ask how she'd obtained all the spices and root vegetables this far from his home province. At first he tried to feed himself, but after the second spoonful spilled from his shaking fingers he relented. It was embarrassing, although the blush rising onto his cheeks may have been helped as much by the feeling of her warm breath on his cheek as by the humiliation. Eventually his body decided it had eaten enough. The woman helped him to lie back down on the ice, snugly wrapped in the blanket.

Through the fatigue clouding his brain Nate asked, "I didn't thank you yet. What is your name?"

She seemed to hesitate before replying, "Lola."

(((((((((( ^^^^^^^^^

Lucario stopped abruptly, his nose eagerly sniffing the air. Mandy and Alessandro froze, both dropping their right hands to their belts, fingering pokéballs. Lucario turned to the right and walked a few paces. Suddenly he slumped forward onto the grass, dropping like a sack of onions. A mad giggling sounded from everywhere at once, as if it was emanating from the air itself. Mandy flicked her gaze around, searching keenly for a target. She knocked a pokéball from her belt to the ground. The casual motion looked almost accidental. A dark blur streaked from the burst of white light into the tall grass surrounding the path on all sides. Umbreon was followed by a deep purple miasma. Grass stems whipped back and forth. Mandy tried to follow the action by listening to the growls and shrieks of the two battling pokémon. She glanced over at Alessandro, who was staring at his belt.

She blew out the breath she'd been holding. "Either release it or relax. You're making me nervous."

Alessandro pursed his lips. "You're not worried? Lucario got knocked out with one hit."

"That was a surprise attack. Besides, Umbreon has that ghost under control."

In a spectacularly good bit of timing Umbreon burst through the grass back onto the path. In her jaws a large Haunter let out a pained cry. Its phantom arms futilely grasped at the iron jaws clamped around its right shoulder.

Mandy let out a low whistle. "Looks pissed off. Not scared. Does that tell you something?"

"That you spend too much time training?"

Mandy laughed at her partner's cheek. "Alessandro, we've got to get your heart rate up more often. You say the silliest things. But yeah, seriously though, this isn't a wild Haunter. And if I'm not wrong the owner will be showing himself momentarily."

In a second piece of beautiful timing, a black liquid began flowing out of Alessandro's shadow into a pool right in front of the Team agents. Before their stunned eyes the viscous liquid rose up into the air, forming a blob before taking on the approximate shape of a human woman. Alessandro clenched his jaw, thinking rapidly about who this could possibly be. He'd never heard of a non-Psychic teleporting. And this was pretty clearly not a Psychic, even if the ghost-type under its control didn't give that away. He could swear that the face forming in the black ooze was familiar. Something about the cheekbones, or the nose, jabbed at a deeply buried but important memory.

Slowly the inky fluid dripped to the ground. A young woman stood there calmly, letting the rivulets of shadow fluid run their course. She was at least an inch taller than Alessandro, towering over Mandy. Long, straight black hair framed a pale face, contrasting prettily against her purple robes. Mandy's hand quickly went to her belt, preparing to throw out Charizard at a moment's notice. She recognized that color all too well. Saffron.

The mysterious woman spoke first. "Greetings." Her mellifluous voice was followed almost instantly by a deeper, less feminine echo.

Alessandro beat Mandy to the punch, asking "Who are you?"

"Most call me Keiko. You may release my Haunter, if you wish. It will not harm you now."

"Now?" Mandy snorted, not bothered by the bizarre shadow teleportation thing. "It didn't show up with a hand out ready to shake. How do we know we can trust you to keep it on a shorter leash this time?"

Keiko made no gestures, facial or otherwise. Even her inflection stayed the same. "As ever, there are no assurances. You will find it to your advantage to heed my words carefully. I come to you as an envoy. Envoys are traditionally noncombatants. They may speak for their masters and they should never be ignored."

Alessandro brought his left hand up to brush damp strands of hair back from his forehead. "Who exactly do you represent, then? We can't exactly speak for the Team. We'll listen, though, before we decide whether to kill you."

Keiko responded "I am employed by the Lady Sabrina in various capacities. My message is directed at both of you, and need go no further. I urge you to reconsider before wasting effort on attempted murder. You will find that the shadows and the ether will cloak me from any malefaction."

Mandy's eyes shot to the Haunter still trapped in Umbreon's jaws, almost pointing out the obvious (she was pretty sure that malefaction meant pain). Another question bubbled up first, shoving aside immediate concerns about violence. She asked "How can you work for Sabrina if you're a ghost? I mean, an exclusive ghost-trainer?"

A faint hint of color marred Keiko's cheeks. "Not all Saffronites are Psychic, nor do we all shun ethereal companions. There is an effect on my…social life, of course. I will offer a free piece of advice as well. You have no evidence that my companions are all ghosts."

Alessandro felt the beginnings of a headache rising, and wondered idly whether Keiko was hurting his head intentionally or not.

Mandy, seemingly satisfied with Keiko's response, added "I know you must be busy cloaking yourself in darkness and sneaking up on people, so let's get to the point. What does your boss want with us? We're happily employed by the Team right now."

"My Lady Sabrina asks you to cease your pursuit of the wayward Ralts. Critical information pertaining to our common enemy lurks within the little one's mind. You harm everyone in Kanto by impeding the Ralt's journey to Saffron, for so little benefit. She urges you to find a more productive use of your talents."

Alessandro shook his head before Keiko finished. "I'm not falling for that. Our 'common enemy' is safely locked away in Cerulean Cave. We've heard no reports of anything for years. If you want us to give up on our job, you need to try something a little more convincing than that."

Mandy thought it odd that Alessandro was talking like a normal person instead of using big words. Perhaps it had something to do with Lucario being knocked out. She tuned back in as Alessandro shifted into philosophy. It was always amusing to her to hear her otherwise world-savvy partner parroting Team doctrine.

"…Mewtwo is gone forever and the more you worry about it, the more you lose touch with the modern world. This world—the real world—is being shaped right here, right now, by the actions of people like you and me. Instead of waiting for your Dark God return and destroy civilization, you could try taking responsibility for your actions. That's what we do. That's why the Team is the future. You would know that if you spent less time in that precious city of yours."

Keiko appeared as unperturbed as ever. "If you will not trust my Lady's word of honor, then this encounter serves little purpose." A wan smile crossed the face of the young woman, the first unmistakable sign of emotion. For the first time the deep echo vanished. "I promise a more violent encounter when next we meet." Suddenly she started to vanish into a dark mist.

A brief wave of nausea hit Mandy and Alessandro, causing them to lean over clutching their stomachs. When they looked up again Lucario and Umbreon crouched side by side, affecting concerned expressions at their trainers. The Haunter had disappeared. Black flakes drifted in the air where Keiko had been before she dematerialized.

Mandy stretched her arms out and sighed. "This is going to involve a lot of paperwork, isn't it?"

Alessandro nodded, before starting off up the trail, his stride even more determined than normal. Mandy hastened to catch up. She didn't want to stick around when that freak could show up again at any time.

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating, I just moved between cities and don't have internet access yet. The next chapter will have a real life pokémon battle in it, I promise.


End file.
